


though our hands may be tied

by genresavvy



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 18:13:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4676429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genresavvy/pseuds/genresavvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hi." He manages a small smile, and the sheer difference between it and the smile he had before everything that happened is so jarring,  "I...didn't think you were gonna visit."<br/>Casey frowns, "Chester, I told you I was going to visit. Why wouldn't I?"<br/>"Sorry. I..." He winces a little, then continues, "thought you were just being nice, when you said that."</p><p>[Casey visits Chester in prison.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	though our hands may be tied

**Author's Note:**

> This was written completely on a whim after randomly rewatching the end of finale for season 9, so my bad if there's any canonical/factual errors in general.

The moment Chester sees her sitting on the other side of the glass, realizes that she's the visitor that he was told came today, he actually stops mid-step in shock. 

Casey almost smiles, but the prison uniform he's wearing and how tired he looks keeps her from following through on the impulse. That was the part of this that she had tried unsuccessfully not to think about all throughout the trial; the fact that Chester was going to be locked up in the same prison where so many of the perps he'd apprehended had wound up.

Chester quickly recovers from his shock and continues walking. 

She tries not to think too much about the fact that his face is bruised and he's walking with a bit of a limp the whole time he's making his way over.

He sits down, they both pick up the phones, and for a moment it's clear he wants to say something but he can't figure out exactly what. So Casey takes it upon herself to speak first.

"Hi." She says, and it's not the right way to start the conversation, but it's the best that she can do.

"Hi." He manages a small smile, and the sheer difference between it and the smile he had before everything that happened is so jarring, "I...didn't think you were gonna visit."

Casey frowns, "Chester, I told you I was going to visit. Why wouldn't I?"

"Sorry. I..." He winces a little, then continues, "thought you were just being nice, when you said that."

"That's where you went wrong." She replies, wryly, "I'm not nice."

It's a weak joke, but the smile she gets in response is the slightest bit more like himself than the first one, so she doesn't feel stupid about making it.

"Are you – is it – are they – " Casey cuts herself off, biting her lip. She'd carefully thought out the questions that she was going to ask him specifically to prevent this from happening, but there was a big difference between sitting in the living room of her apartment and sitting across from Chester in the visitation room of the prison.

He sighs, shakes his head, "You don't wanna know, Casey."

Truthfully? He's right. She doesn't want to know exactly what a bunch of pissed off perps are putting him through, exactly what the guards are allowing to happen by looking the other way because he's in jail for killing a fellow officer. The last thing she wants is to know that, to be able to picture it when it's late at night or early in the morning and she can't get to sleep.

But she promised herself that she would be there for him, that she would help him not be so alone in this, so she lies, "You can tell me. I want to know."

Chester studies her for a moment, and she can tell he knows she's lying, but he doesn't call her on it. He just takes a deep breath, and starts talking.

Casey has no idea if it's better or worse than what she expected; she had tried to stay rational and realistic about it, and instead parts of her had imagined the worst while other parts of her had hoped for the best. All that she knows is that it's bad, and she desperately wishes that she could do something about it.

(It's funny, in a horrible way: if that case hadn't happened she would probably be able to help him, but if that case hadn't happened he wouldn't be in the situation.)

He finishes and it's almost time for her to leave, but she can't think of anything to say after everything that he just told her about. 

"You know that you're wrong," He says, suddenly, "Right?"

"What?" Is all that she can manage, because he has been the one doing the talking, and she starts running through what she's said to him so far in her head.

"About not being nice." He clarifies, "You're not that kind of nice," he doesn't have to specify for her to know what he means -- the kind of nice that means you would promise to visit someone in prison because it's the right thing to do, but never actually do it, "but that doesn't mean you're not nice."

Saying 'thank you' to that doesn't seem like enough, so instead Casey says, "Same time next week?"

For a few seconds, his smile is the same as it was before, "That would be wonderful."


End file.
